MA Art in Science

Investigating new areas of Art/Science practice-based research with the MA Art in Science postgraduate programme at Liverpool School of Art and Design

#HEASTEM18

Mark Roughley @mrk87, Kathryn Smith @serialworks

Presentation Overview

MA Art in Science Overview

What is Art in Science?

Exploring the boundaries of art and science – case studies

Reflective summary

MA Art in Science Overview

The MA Art in Science programme at Liverpool School of Art and Design is a studio based,

taught postgraduate programme with collaborative practice and discovery at its core.

The programme is collaboratively developed with academic experts across a number of

disciplines that include: Art and Design, Sports Science, Public Health, Evolutionary

Anthropology, Astrophysics, Digital Technologies and Museum Practice.

Students enjoy access to a number of different established research centres across Liverpool

John Moores University and explore the relationship between art and science through a

sequence of set and self-initiated projects.

We explore the historical and theoretical connections between art and science as cultures and

practices, and understand how these ideas translate into contemporary experiences.

Students develop research skills and critical techniques to explore Art/Science project

briefs in unexpected forms.

“This programme offers a unique opportunity for artists to collaborate in the world of science and provide impact and knowledge exchange from a number of different Art/Science fields. “

Professor Caroline Wilkinson, Art in Science Programme leader and Director of Liverpool School of Art

MA Art in Science Overview

Throughout the taught semesters, guest artists and scientists deliver lectures and

workshops to introduce students to a wide variety of Art/Science collaborative projects

and disciplines.

During 2016/17 academic year there were:• exciting ethical debates with bioartist Gina Czarnecki.

• a fantastic discussion with astrophysicists focusing on explaining gravitational waves to a public

audience using flora and sculpture at the RHS Flower Show.

• a thought-provoking presentation showcasing a collaborative African mammal conservation

project that allows conservation biologists to use space telescope technology and drones to track

animal numbers across vast distances.

• an eye-opening injury depiction for legal/courtroom scenarios seminar with forensic artist Ray

Evans.

• an economic botany workshop with artist Becky Beinart where students made their own tonic

water using cinchona bark and explored its medical uses.

• a wax facial pathology sculpture workshop with anatomical artist Eleanor Crook.

MA Art in Science Overview

Students study Research and Practice modules that explore themes relating to artistic

research practice and allow students to propose and conduct research, leading to the

production of a dissertation closely aligned to their own Art/Science practice.

Students are exposed to themes surrounding the ethics of display, bioethics, working

with humans/vulnerable people/human materials in research, art practice as

research and public engagement.

Our recently graduated cohort have produced discursive and critically reflective

dissertations investigating topics such as:

- ‘Ethics and Robots: Human-Robot Relationships’

- Charting the Body: Tattooing as a Means of Self-Identification’

- ‘The Emotive Digital Face: A Survey and Analysis of the Field of Emotion and

Expression Portrayed by Digital Faces’.

MA Art in Science Overview

In the second semester students have the opportunity to work closely with internal

partners within the School of Art & Design, the wider John Moores scientific community

or with external partners in the UK and internationally as part of their Collaborative

Practice module.

Through key partnerships, students are able to engage with a range of collaborative

projects which challenge the notion of the interdisciplinary practice within the

context of the contemporary art & design, and which enable them to propose, plan,

organise, publish and promote their work within the context of an external body.

This module is shared by the six taught postgraduate programmes at Liverpool School

of Art and Design and allows students to collaborate across programmes.• MA Fashion Innovation & Realisation

• MA Graphic Design & Illustration

• MA Fine Art

• MRes Art and Design

• MA Exhibition Studies

• MA Art in Science

What do we mean by Collaborative Practice?

Is any activity an act of collaboration?

Is it about shared goals and ambitions?

Is it about shared needs perhaps?

When circumstances require it?

When its beneficial to do so? = Is collaboration desirable?

We see collaboration as an enabler, offering an engagement with activities

that may not otherwise be achievable.

CollaborationStudents have opportunities to visit and potentially collaborate with a number of established research

centres across LJMU.

This may include:

ARTS LABS

The Public Health Institute,

Astrophysics Research Institute,

Centre in Evolutionary Anthropology and Palaeoecology,

Research Institute for Sport and Exercise Sciences,

Centre for Advanced Policing Studies,

They may work collaboratively with other students, practitioners and researchers across art and

science disciplines.

We are lucky to have academic science partners in LJMU who are able to cross-faculty co-supervise

projects, offer support and technical expertise and write innovative project briefs.

Students have access to Liverpool School of Art and Design’s cultural partners, including Tate

Liverpool, FACT (Foundation for Art and Creative Technology) and Liverpool Biennial, plus access to

local partners such as National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool Medical Institution and Liverpool School

of Tropical Medicine.

As our programme develops we are building links with partners in the North West UK, such as

Wigan S.T.E.A.M; engaging with exemplary international guest artists individually and through

adjunct programmes such as the FACT/Arts@CERN Collide residency, Leonardo LASER (Leonardo

Art and Science Evening Rendezvous) programme and Tate Exchange programme; and visiting

collections and exhibitions across the country including the Wellcome Collection London, the

Museum of the History of Science Oxford and Birmingham Open Media (BOM)

Exchange

Collaboration

Community of artists

Students from all postgraduate programmes share a creative studio

There are a number of opportunities to collaborate with students and staff from the School’s other MA

programmes in Fashion, Fine Art, Urban Design, Graphic Design and Illustration, and Exhibition Studies,

particularly during two modules shared by all the postgraduate taught programmes.

Liverpool School of Art and Design MA exhibitions 2017

What is Art in Science?

Art and Science are often seen to be two different entities with very separate

ideas of what constitutes as research.

Our programme has been developed to encourage transdisciplinary

creativity from anatomy to algorithms, pixels to performance, science to

semiotics…

…to bring together artists and scientists to explore collaborative

approaches in Art/Science research and practice.

What is Art in Science?Collaborations between artists and scientists are increasingly a feature of the

cultural landscape. Traditionally this relationship can be art in the service of

science whereby artists use their skills to visually interpret or

communicate complex scientific ideas, objects or forms.

However, a hybrid form of research has emerged over the last 30 years where

artists and scientists are interested in the creative possibilities and

speculative futures of the intersection of these two cultures.

Examining differences between art and science should not prevent anyone

from observing their common ground (Decamous, 2016).Decamous, G. (2016) When Art and Science Collide: Arts at CERN. Afterimage, Vol. 44 Issue 3, p6-7. 2p.

#SciArt#SciComm

#MathArt

#BioArt#MedArt

#MedViz

#Medicalillustration

#ForensicArt

#MaterialEcology

#BioMedia

#ScienceIllustration

#BioMimicry

#artandscience#cyberbodies

#medicalhumanities

#VirtualFutures

#BioViz

#BioFieldArt

#Biohacking

#HistMed

What is Art in Science?

Mark Quinn- Self

http://marcquinn.com/artworks/self

Neil Harbisson - Sonochromatic Head

https://www.cyborgarts.com/ /

Alex May – My Robot Companion

https://ahprojects.com/

Julie Freeman – RAT.systems

http://www.translatingnature.org/rat-systems/

Ryoichi Kurokawa -Unfold

http://www.ryoichikurokawa.com/project/unfold.html

Melissa Fisher –

‘Microbial me’

http://www.mellissafisher.

com

Adam Harvey – CV Dazzle

https://ahprojects.com/

We are already discussing what is next for Art in Science…#postartinscience

The main objective of this programme is to ‘explore the boundaries of art and

science’.

What do we mean by this?

The kind of work we expect should demonstrate a high level of conceptual thought. This

should be reflected in the motivations behind the student’s work, which in turn should be

based in scholarly research and current topics of interest.

We also expect to see a considered relationship between form and content. In other

words, HOW the research is presented should relate to WHAT is being communicated.

MA Art in Science aims

‘Exploring the boundaries of art and science’

≠making art/design about science topics

An aim of ArtScience study within higher education is to capture and articulate aspects of science that only become

apparent through first-hand experience of interactions, ideas and innovations that would not have happened if

scientists and artists had been left to their own devices (Gates-Stuart, 2013).Gates-Stuart, E. (2016) Art and Science as Creative Catalysts http://visap.uic.edu/2013/papers/Stuart_CreativeCatalysts.pdf

Q: So how do we ‘work at the boundaries’ of disciplines?

A: Develop a shared vocabulary

‘Working at the boundaries’ is about both art and science carrying equal

weight…

…the artist should not serve the scientist’s interests and sacrifice their

own creative ideas, and vice versa.

It can be argued that Art and Science share a visual language and rely on

similar creative processes (Bailey, 2017)Bailey, E. (2017) Is It Art or Is It Science? Scientific American, Online: https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/is-it-art-or-is-it-science/

This is true of any truly collaborative practice, involving specialists from

disciplines other than your own.

We expect student’s to work with scientists and learn to ‘speak each other’s

language’, in order to protect their artistic voice, and be able to critically

interpret their collaborator’s point of view.

In other words, such work requires appropriately diverse conceptual, technical

and visual vocabularies.

One way to approach this is to interrogate how art and science, as disciplines,

conceptualise, and carry out, their work.

In other words, what are their respective operating principles? How do their

core values differ, and where do they connect or complement each other?

For scientists, everything starts with a

question, formulated into a hypothesis.

Experiments are then designed to answer

this question. It is linear, progressive,

goal-orientated, each experiment

representing a closed circle. It produces

knowledge proscriptively.

For artists, the ‘question’ might only be able to be

answered after the work is completed.

Of course, this does not mean the work does not

begin with a question – or more likely, a whole

cluster of questions. An artist’s research process

is not linear; it remains open to diversions and

deviations along the way, possible unanticipated

discoveries. A good image is that of a rhizome.

Articulating the initial question requires

critical reflection; art produces knowledge

retrospectively.

Richard Giblett, Mycelium rhizome https://i1.wp.com/www.doorsofperception.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/richard-giblett-

mycelium-rhizome.jpg

Or?

What is common to both?

‘Artists work to invent problems that only they can solve, and in so doing, reveal particular truths.’

‘Scientists work to develop

solutions for problems that should

be testable/repeatable by others

in order to be considered ‘true’.’

Process also produces knowledge of different kinds

Process is linked to METHOD, which may be understood differently by

artists and scientists

(Likewise, we understand the word ‘experimental’ differently)

?

process

Research vs ‘visual research’

A scientific understanding of research means designing experimental

conditions towards testing claims, or making new discoveries.

Visual research methods are recognised (i.e. documented and

theorised) forms of research methodologies used within the humanities

and social sciences.

Within the context of artistic practice, ‘visual research’ refers to gathering

as many resources – usually but not exclusively image-based – towards

the development of a piece of creative work.

Research-based artistic practice is about understanding how your

interest interface with an existing field, and knowing the key

practitioners, researchers and work in that field

Collaborative project with Face Lab LJMU – The creation of a standardised non-

identifiable ear for interchangeable use in facial animation projects (biometric analysis,

3D prints, annotated 3D ear models

Collaborative project with Forensic Odonatologist – Tooth

modification by disease or design (3D sculptures, 3D prints)

Collaborative project with Stem Cell Biologist – 3D printed

support structure to help grow muscle fibres for potential

use in muscle repair (3D prints)

Collaborative project with Astrophysicist– Astrophysics concepts ‘Scale of the universe’

(a woollen solar system), ‘Distance and Light’ (screen prints, pocket booklet) public

engagement materials

Case studies: 2016/17 academic year

The research module that spans the summer months allows students to really collaborate

and drive their own explorations of Art/Science research to develop innovative and novel

research projects.

Case studies: 2016/17 academic year

‘Unshelving’ museum artefacts using AR – Alexandra EmmettCollaboration with Liverpool World Museum and Dr Ashley Cooke,

Antiquities Curator

Aim was to investigate the history of and “unshelve” ancient Egyptian artefacts in

the museum collections for use in outreach and engagement with schools, by

viewing them in an interactive, online Augmented Reality (AR) environment.

Dissecting the Future: A Practical Exploration of Speculative

Evolution & the Post-human - Vittorio Manetti

Collaboration with Dr. Partha Vaiude – Surgical-Art UK

This project sought to explore the many speculative theories of human

evolution in various environments, through survey of the transhumanism

movement and evolutionary biologist’s theories, and disseminate the

findings via a staged dissection.

The project has aimed to blur the line between science, performance art

and reality by attempting to attribute a sense of institutional authority to

the dissection of a posthuman.

This human cannot yet exist but has been created by bringing together

some of the more credible speculative theories of humankinds future

evolution and disseminate them in a tangible way.

Face and Mask: A Metamorphosis of Pain – Anthony Pettigrew

Collaboration with Professor Stephen Fairclough - PsychologyBeing a sufferer of the neurological condition ‘cluster headaches’,

Anthony aimed to survey and analyse the psychology behind our

understanding of the face, masks and how they are intrinsically linked.

People have and show different masks dependent on which social context

we are in at any given time. Chronic pain and its links to emotion and

empathy change these masks and this research journey produced masks

that portray perceptions of the artist’s pain.

An aim of this project was to use 3D scanning, modelling and printing to

produce 3D printed representations of faces at differing stages of the pain

cycle that could be personalised, printed and used to explain/visualise

pain to medical practitioners.

• Our role is to guide students through taught core content, providing a foundation on which they are expected to build

upon towards becoming an expert in their own area of interest. As we are only in year two of our programme’s

delivery, we were already captivated by the innovative projects that our first year’s cohort produced and we are

looking forward to seeing what new areas of Art/Science research and practice that our new student cohort will

explore.

• Students are expected to develop a personal practice that challenges traditional perspectives in both

disciplines and we are finding that what students perceive as Art in Science when they enter the programme is not

the same understanding that they have upon graduation.

• We are refocusing module delivery away from presenting a varied number of options for collaboration within differing

science fields, to investigating themes such as transhumanism, biohacking and public engagement, as

frameworks for exploration with our scientific partners.

• We will continue to expand upon our relationships with our partners in Art and Science to develop learning activities

that allow our students to challenge their thoughts on what is Art in Science and further understand what it

means to collaborate across Art and Science.

• As our students are mostly from art and design backgrounds, we are introducing more crossover discussion and

debate sessions with our LJMU collaborative partner’s science students, with the hope that this will encourage

knowledge transfer and provoke exciting research projects.

• Our guest lecturer sessions are open to all LJMU MA students and we have already seen Art/Science crossover into

other subject’s student projects, for example with Fashion Innovation and Realisation projects.

Reflection

Thank you for listening

Questions?

M.A.Roughley@ljmu.ac.uk

Find us on social media @ArtinScienceMA